To deliver a good experience you need baseline expectations

25 Jul To deliver a good experience you need baseline expectations

Reading Time: 3 minutes

No surprise. When people can rely on a good experience interacting with you, you get a brand bursting with value. Yet, how much do you control? Because an experience is always in the now. Yep, the moment right then. And here comes another one, in a constant, unstoppable stream of happening.

The term gets used loosely, but future, actual, and past experience are different. A better description of future experience is expectations. Which are a grab bag of what you say will happen and what I think should happen, often coloured by other events.

A past experience is what I remember. Generally, doing what you say equals good memories. Don’t, and well, you get the idea. However, that’s influenced by what I expected, and it turns out my memories are different and fuzzier than I think.

Side note. Perhaps surveys should ask what I remember rather than how my experience was!

Sounds messy, and it is. So, why not take control of the sliver you can grasp and craft some baseline expectations? Those few deliberate, conscious choices about what you want to happen might form your only line of defence. The rest are a ragtag bunch of outside forces that barrage how I receive the moment.

Baseline expectations will be different for everyone. Beyond business basics of don’t be rude, show up on time, make sure customers don’t have to jump through a hundred hoops, pay your bills, and say thank you. They should answer what it’s like for people to work for and with you, buy from and support you. Every stakeholder–customer, worker, supplier, and investor.

They bridge what you want to do and can do, each and every time. The processes and protocols that make those things happen. Knowing who should do what, when, and how. And understanding how everything connects together end-to-end.

When I ask organisations about their baseline, few can answer. Plenty have elaborate maps with stages identifying ‘moments that matter’ and how they want people to feel. But that’s no more than improv theatre unless the staging lays out the necessary marks and cues. Over and over, absent clear expectations, people wing it.

Depending on the situation and other moving pieces and parts, what happens in the moment becomes a lucky (or unlucky) dip. And that’s bad news for everyone.

• Negative bias means people are not only more likely to remember the bad. They will tell 10 times more people than when they’re happy. And turbocharge that number if they use social media. So limiting discontent is equally (if not more) important than minting delight
• Clarity limits choices, but it frees people so they can focus on what matters most, not on figuring out what to do. Want more productive, happier staff and smoother supplier relationships? Get some baseline expectations in place
• Constantly reinventing the basics saps energy you could use to grow, meaning opportunities take a back seat. Which can kick-start a downward spiral that’s hard to recover from
• No clear expectations about how and why things happen means the details are likely falling through the cracks. Hello broken promises in waiting.

So, what are your baseline expectations?

It’s tempting to mimic other companies. And while there’s no harm in admiring their choices. Copying them is a likely recipe for broken promises. Especially if you’re not wired the same way (and most aren’t).

But you don’t need their playbook. Here are some questions to help you write your own. And, no surprise, it starts with identity:

• What are your purpose and values? Aka, ground zero for motivating your choices and the ‘you’ you want people to know
• What kind of business are you in? Dell customised computers, but underneath they pioneered a ‘just-in-time’ supply chain business. Anchor your expectations to what you do if you want to deliver on the hype you use to sell
• What ‘cost of doing business’ stuff do different stakeholders expect so you’re on par with others in your sector? Thanks to Amazon, it’s rare for a big retailer to get away with a clunky checkout and slow delivery
• Channel your stakeholders. What expectations would they set? Think about what’s different and what’s the same. Anything they all want is a juicy, low-hanging expectation ripe for picking
• What expectations can you meet consistently? Which means most of the time. Because the nature of an organisation’s complex promises makes 100% impossible
• Are there any processes, policies, or other choices in the way of consistently meeting an expectation? Yes. Then change them. If you can’t change them, set a different one. Can’t set a different one? Maybe you shouldn’t be in that business!

Sometimes examining how your organisation operates seems like the least sexy thing in the world. But you can’t accumulate value in the brand without people who buy, support, and work for you remembering a good experience. And setting expectations you can meet consistently is a solid start.

Thanks for reading.